Glucolisis

© 2002 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Printed in U.S.A.

BIOCHEMISTRY

AND

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 221–223, 2002

Metabolic MinimapMetabolic Minimaps of Glycolysis and Gluconeogenesis and Their Regulation, Designed by Donald E. Nicholson
COMMENTARY: METABOLIC MINIMAPS ARE USEFUL TOOLS
Received for publication, May 3, 2002Richard W. Hanson‡ From the Department of Biochemistry, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-4935

This issue of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBED)presents metabolic minimaps by Dr. Donald Nicholson on the reactions and control of gluconeogenesis and glycolysis (Figs. 1 and 2). These are the fourth and fifth in a series of metabolic minimaps tobe published in these pages [1–3]; when completed, they will cover all of the major pathways of intermediary metabolism. As any student of biochemistry can readily attest, metabolism can be a veryintimidating subject. It often seems to be all details and very little theory. This is complicated by the complexity of the interaction between the specific metabolic pathways. A student may memorize agive metabolic sequence only to find that it interacts with another pathway that is critical to the regulation of yet a third set of reactions. As Sir Hans Krebs once said, when asked why the controlof the citric acid cycle seems overly complicated, “complexity is the starting point.” And so it is! Without some aids to help keep it all straight, it would be very easy to lose the forest for thetrees. Donald Nicholson’s metabolic minimaps will provide the student of biochemistry with a valuable tool for keeping the facts straight. The first minimap shown here presents the major reactions inglycolysis and gluconeogenesis, complete with International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology enzyme numbers and the names of the enzymes to match their numbers listed below. There are no...